According to a survey carried out by the law firm AG Immigration based on data obtained from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the issuance of green cards for Brazilians broke a record in 2023. According to the survey, last year, 28,050 Brazilians received permanent residence in the United States.
The number represents an increase of 16% compared to 2022, when 24,169 were granted green cards to Brazilians.
The amount places Brazil in tenth place in the ranking of countries that received the most migration benefits. The ranking is led by Mexico (179 thousand), India (76 thousand), Cuba (74 thousand), Dominican Republic (66 thousand) and China (58 thousand).
“In the last five years, the four highest annual volumes of green cards issued to Brazilians were recorded. It is a notable trend”, said the CEO of AG Immigration, Leda Oliveira, in a note sent to People’s Gazettethis Monday (17).
The phenomenon of worker flight, according to Leda, is explained by two main reasons: the shortage of labor in the USA, which inflates salaries and encourages the hiring of immigrants, and the political-economic stagnation in Brazil in the last decade, “which It often causes a feeling of hopelessness among the population and does not generate adequate financial opportunities.”
“Green cards for Brazilians are basically divided between those issued based on the immigrant’s kinship, that is, when the person already has a family member who is a permanent resident or citizen in the USA, and those granted based on employment. These, in general, are aimed at professionals who are going to work in an American company or who, even without having a job offer, go to the USA to develop their careers”, says another excerpt from the note.
Furthermore, according to the AG Immigration survey, the number of Brazilians who obtained American citizenship also reached the second highest level in the historical series, after reaching a record in 2022. In total, there were 12,570 naturalizations in 2023, a slight drop of 4.7 % over the 13,203 from the previous year.
In this regard, Brazil was the 16th country that obtained the most US citizenship, behind countries such as Mexico (109 thousand), India (57 thousand), Philippines (43 thousand), Canada (18 thousand) and the United Kingdom (12.7 thousand). thousand).
Generally, a foreign national can become a naturalized U.S. citizen after five years on a green card, as long as the majority of that time has been spent on U.S. soil.
“When a person receives permanent residence, they have to, in fact, live in the country. Otherwise, the benefit may be revoked”, explained the CEO of AG Immigration.
As a citizen, the immigrant is able to obtain rights that, as a permanent resident, he does not have, such as the right to vote, access to social benefit programs and student financing, work in certain positions in the federal public administration and obtain an American passport. Furthermore, as a citizen, he can sponsor family members, such as his parents, to come to the USA.
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